Is this the real reason some people hate cellphones?
July 13, 2000 4:32 PM Subscribe
I concur, tiaka. And if having a cellphone fused to your ear for hours every day is what "success" means, it's all yours. >:-)
posted by aflakete at 5:34 PM on July 13, 2000
posted by aflakete at 5:34 PM on July 13, 2000
I diepise cellphones because every time I've held one in my hands, I've felt an onimous leash being draped around my neck.
Of course, every cellphone I've held in my hands has been given to me by employers. The correlation is pretty obvious. :-)
posted by cCranium at 5:58 PM on July 13, 2000
Of course, every cellphone I've held in my hands has been given to me by employers. The correlation is pretty obvious. :-)
posted by cCranium at 5:58 PM on July 13, 2000
I dunno. If that guy were really successful (and/or that concerned with appearing successful), he wouldn't be hanging out in a cheap bar frequented by the likes of the Fusco Brothers. He'd be in some hip downtown club snorting coke and engaging in heavy petting with cheap women where everyone can watch him.
posted by aaron at 7:39 PM on July 13, 2000
posted by aaron at 7:39 PM on July 13, 2000
Well you can keep the coke but I'll take the cheap women.
Last night I was sitting at a bar in Deep Ellum with some friends, and noticed to my amusement that I was the only person of the four of us at that table who wasn't carrying a cellphone. In fact, all my (NOT cheap) girlfriends in recent memory have had cellphones. I can contact them when I want but they have a devil of a time getting ahold of me. Maybe I should get one?
Omigod! What am I saying??
posted by ZachsMind at 7:54 PM on July 13, 2000
Last night I was sitting at a bar in Deep Ellum with some friends, and noticed to my amusement that I was the only person of the four of us at that table who wasn't carrying a cellphone. In fact, all my (NOT cheap) girlfriends in recent memory have had cellphones. I can contact them when I want but they have a devil of a time getting ahold of me. Maybe I should get one?
Omigod! What am I saying??
posted by ZachsMind at 7:54 PM on July 13, 2000
here's a fun game if you're a sheepish cellphone user like myself: when the rest of the bar becomes lousy with yuppie poseurs on their phones, whip out your own phone and call the person you're sitting with and your two friends three feet away. speak as loudly and obnoxiously as possible. works best if you're all saying nothing but "narf narf narf" to each other.
it gets the point across quite nicely.
posted by patricking at 10:19 PM on July 13, 2000
it gets the point across quite nicely.
posted by patricking at 10:19 PM on July 13, 2000
Wish I had the link to go with this, but I read somewhere that people shout into cellphones because they don’t get the aural feedback you get with a regular phone. Deprived of the sound of your own voice in your own ear, you assume the other person can’t hear you, either. So you shout.
Once you realize that SHOUTING on a cellphone is the public equivalent of CAPSLOC email, you speak quietly. I have one, and use it to call my editor three times a week before deadlines. (It’s that or hang around the office.) I always go outside to use it, and it makes me wish I hadn’t given up smoking so I could be a double pariah. I speak in a normal voice, and my editor hears me just fine.
Cellphone usage would drop considerably if they adopted my invention: the CellHood (TM), a black cowl that drapes over one’s head, covering the face. People would no longer strut around having Important Arguments; they would stand meekly in one place, and conclude the call as quickly as possible before it ruined their hair.
posted by lileks at 10:26 PM on July 13, 2000
Once you realize that SHOUTING on a cellphone is the public equivalent of CAPSLOC email, you speak quietly. I have one, and use it to call my editor three times a week before deadlines. (It’s that or hang around the office.) I always go outside to use it, and it makes me wish I hadn’t given up smoking so I could be a double pariah. I speak in a normal voice, and my editor hears me just fine.
Cellphone usage would drop considerably if they adopted my invention: the CellHood (TM), a black cowl that drapes over one’s head, covering the face. People would no longer strut around having Important Arguments; they would stand meekly in one place, and conclude the call as quickly as possible before it ruined their hair.
posted by lileks at 10:26 PM on July 13, 2000
Heh. Being reachable all the time by cell phone doesn't mean you're important.
If you were that important, no one would be able to reach you.
posted by webmutant at 10:30 PM on July 13, 2000
If you were that important, no one would be able to reach you.
posted by webmutant at 10:30 PM on July 13, 2000
I concur with webmutant's definition. I guess that makes me the most important person in the world!
posted by Mr. skullhead at 7:08 AM on July 14, 2000
posted by Mr. skullhead at 7:08 AM on July 14, 2000
Indeed.
For those of us in the middle stratum, though, a cellphone isn't a leash. Quite the opposite -- it makes it possible for them to *let you leave* the office, since they can still reach you, even though you're not there.
That's how it works for me, anyway.
An amusing postscript. My email and Usenet sigs have had my cellphone or beeper number in them for the last *15 years*.
Know how many calls that's gotten me?
*Maybe* 3. :-)
posted by baylink at 8:09 AM on July 14, 2000
For those of us in the middle stratum, though, a cellphone isn't a leash. Quite the opposite -- it makes it possible for them to *let you leave* the office, since they can still reach you, even though you're not there.
That's how it works for me, anyway.
An amusing postscript. My email and Usenet sigs have had my cellphone or beeper number in them for the last *15 years*.
Know how many calls that's gotten me?
*Maybe* 3. :-)
posted by baylink at 8:09 AM on July 14, 2000
The conversation I hear every day starts the same way:
[Man On Train]: Hi honey. I'm on the train.
You'd think by now honey would realize that Man On Train calls her from the train every day, and this formality could be dispensed with.
posted by Outlawyr at 9:38 AM on July 14, 2000
[Man On Train]: Hi honey. I'm on the train.
You'd think by now honey would realize that Man On Train calls her from the train every day, and this formality could be dispensed with.
posted by Outlawyr at 9:38 AM on July 14, 2000
Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I still think that cell phones should be reserved for emergencies and not for gabbing. I own a cell phone, but I hate talking on it for any extended period of time. The heat and radiation drive me insane, and I'm constantly reminded of each and every minute that gets drained away.
You should certainly turn your phone off and never use it in a classroom. There are certain classmates of mine that use them while the professor talks, and I can't tune out the frivolous stuff and concentrate on the important.
Label me silly, but that's just indecent behavior.
posted by evilmaryellen at 11:50 AM on July 14, 2000
You should certainly turn your phone off and never use it in a classroom. There are certain classmates of mine that use them while the professor talks, and I can't tune out the frivolous stuff and concentrate on the important.
Label me silly, but that's just indecent behavior.
posted by evilmaryellen at 11:50 AM on July 14, 2000
Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I still think that cell phones should be reserved for emergencies and not for gabbing. I own a cell phone, but I hate talking on it for any extended period of time. The heat and radiation drive me insane, and I'm constantly reminded of each and every minute that gets drained away.
You should certainly turn your phone off and never use it in a classroom. There are certain classmates of mine that use them while the professor talks, and I can't tune out the frivolous stuff and concentrate on the important.
Label me silly, but that's just indecent behavior.
posted by evilmaryellen at 11:51 AM on July 14, 2000
You should certainly turn your phone off and never use it in a classroom. There are certain classmates of mine that use them while the professor talks, and I can't tune out the frivolous stuff and concentrate on the important.
Label me silly, but that's just indecent behavior.
posted by evilmaryellen at 11:51 AM on July 14, 2000
I apologize for double posting.
posted by evilmaryellen at 11:52 AM on July 14, 2000
posted by evilmaryellen at 11:52 AM on July 14, 2000
Anyone that would use a cellphone while someone is lecturing in a classroom, I'd tell them "turn it off or I'll turn it off for you." I hate to have to threaten people with violence, but in our classless and rude society, it's sometimes necessary! If I have to jerk the cellphone out of some idiot's hand and smash it to bits on the ground to make my point, that's OK. I would imagine that most people would cheer my actions. The problem is that very few people now have the courage to stand up and say that this is not acceptable behavior.
posted by Mr. skullhead at 1:57 PM on July 14, 2000
posted by Mr. skullhead at 1:57 PM on July 14, 2000
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But that's me.
posted by tiaka at 5:18 PM on July 13, 2000